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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Politics


Stow

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This is kind of two ideas, but they do relate to eachother.

 

1. You know how in xcom ALL the nations automatically started out funding xcom? How about it start out with only the traditional post ww2 allies as funding xcom and over time your actions can convince the other nations to help you. or if you wanna be mean they'll fight you.

 

which brings me to my next idea:

 

2.

I really enjoyed how in xcom apoc you could be evil and raid other buildings...

 

How about a similar feature in xenocide where each nation has various bases of their own (just because aliens invaded doesnt mean they dismantled all their bases does it?) placed around the globe. Some are well known and automatically visible on the map, while some are top secret and can only be found over time.

 

If the aliens infiltrate a nation, its bases transfer over to the aliens. They'll still be manned by humans, but they won't exactly bake a cake if you decide to drop by for a visit.

 

You could even raid human military bases that aren't under the influence of the aliens. I don't know, maybe they were making bio weapons or something...

 

Even better! you could raid cities

Short of cash? Go raid a swiss bank! :devillaugh:

 

of course raiding friendly bases/cities would most likely cause that nation to withdraw all funding... but hey, if theyr'e already inflitrated, why not?

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  • 3 months later...

Politics would be really nice for post V1.0, and it adds a whole lot more styles of missions... what if your base in uin a country under alien influence, and you'd have to defend agains TONS of regular army troops :hammer:

 

Tehn again, why limit ourselves with a dozen major countries, the politics could include ALL countries in the world...

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  • 1 month later...
Heck, such a detailed political system would really breathe life into Xenocide's world, and add that extra layer of depth to the tried and true "shoot down UFO, shoot down surviving aliens, then repeat." I like the idea of having to worry about idiot, gullable humans that ally themselves with the aliens--gives the game a ton of unpredictibility. Good stuff.
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Then again, I can't imagine warring countries, or traditional ennemies (of wich I won't start a flaming list) participating together in such a project...

Even in the face of planetary anihilation, some people will always be blinded by hatred, or refuse to face the greater good of humanity...

 

Heck, some might try to extortionate some alien weapons by threatening to go public...

We might even have to "recuperate" some proofs that XCOM exists when a country defects to the aliens...

 

Anyway, I think the politics would make a nice addition for V1+

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I have a better idea. What about having a certain percentance (like, 10% to 20%) Defect from you after a month after the first alien abduction/terror site/Other sucsessfull mission? That would be random of course, and higher foundings have a lower chance. By having it later in the game, it will make your start quite easier, plus you can't just restart untill you get the minimum ammount of defection.

 

I like the idea of politics, like where you simply need to send a ship to a certain site (we might even have a certain media channel). This site would be random, but only be in the surrounding areas of where you shot down ufos, have terror sites, alien abductions, etc. In the start, you might only need to send in a ship to stop them from broadcasting. Other times, there will be resistance, or even aliens showing up. Other times, some of the media guys have a briefcase/DVD, that you need to get your hands on, before he gets to the media van where he can broadcast it.

Edited by mikker
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Yup, MORE MISSION TYPES!!

It adds to gameplay, and sets teh atmosphere right, because I never much felt the XCOM was covert in the original... I mean, blowing up whole villages, blasting aliens in cities... :LOL:

 

And Civilians radars should ba able to spot UFOs, or some military aircrafts would try... And getting on site ans seing some military personnel pinned down would be real cool too...

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Hey, that's a neat idea...

 

Except Russia and China ARE in the UN, even in the permanent Security council... O:)

They are not in NATO, however, and I don't see the day they'll do... :LOL:

 

Then again, I ADORE the idea of trying to get more countries on board as the game begins, it gives more incentives to mind the politics... ^_^

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i don't like the idea that some countries are MENT to be evil. Then people from THOSE cuntries will get sick of playing xenocide....

 

what about soldiers that are born in those cuntries that deffect? What about they:

 

1) Leave.

2) Sabotarge stuff

3) Requires higher payment and a month off in holiday.

Edited by mikker
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I agree with Mikker, we can't have certain countries be EVIL, that's just not fair, and that could lead to unpleasant reactions from some of our members. Edited by Azrael
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True, I mean, if the game wasn't an exact remake of the original (though played like it), you could've had the setting be anywhere but Earth and avoided direct implications to existing political climates.

 

I like the idea better that it be political, however its corporations that'd be the driving forces of political upheaval rather than governments. Besides, what's the famous "out" they all like to aspouse when people start pointing fingers at their governments? Plausable deniability heh.

 

I say use that angle, then you could downplay that political climate as we know it without like, making any specific country that bad apple. On the other hand, I think that if you have equal chances of any country being evil with regard to the game's setting, what the heck, let it ride. Besides, its more fun to think of it as X-COM's job to do all the gentle persuasion stuff with a side of plasma fire n' blaster bombage :)

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Or just let them be random, let the game ramdomly choose what countries start as "evil". The thing is that we cannot choose arbitrarily which countries are bad or good. Edited by Azrael
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I never said anything about countries being "Evil"!!! :o

 

Besides, the very idea is laughable... :stupid:

 

NO country or culture is fundamentally Evil, that's just an artificial word you'll have to get rid of if you want to see the REAL world... :naughty:

Everything is in shades of gray, and there are no BAD countries, just bad governments... (I could name a few, but the point is that the more a government lies to everyone, the worse it is)

Saying a country is "evil" is not only childish, it's totally absurd!!

Get out of hollywood movies, and learn about the REAL world!! :rock:

 

My point was simply that Russia and China, two formerly pure Communist regimes, are VERY unlikely to join an organisation based on NATO, that was signed and built upon mutual defense against THEM... It would simply be a plain insult to them, adding insult to injury (of their pride). Hence, they'd most likely only join as a last resort, especially if the US is too present in XCOM... (like, if you put your first base in the US O:) )

 

OOOOHHH :idea:

Here's what, lets make the countries that join dependant on where you put your first base!!! :D

That would be SOO cool!!

Another layer of realism, and depending on whereyou'd put your first base, you'd be, like: :happybanana:

 

Oh, and about a non-earth setting, it's a bad idea IMHO... Far too much artificial... We DO have an emotionnal attachment to this big blue planet of ours, so let's not waste it...

I personally HATE it when my own country signs a pact with the aliens, and I usually do everything to prevent it...

It's much easier to immerse ourselves in a world that's so complex as to be believable, and our REAL world is the most believable there is... :D

 

[edit]

The point is that NO countries are good or bad, they might just choose to be part of XCOM or not...

Some countries might simply not BELIEVE that the menace is real, or they may not TRUST something that's made by their traditional rivals, so they might try to fend off for themselves...

Besides, if we try to intercept/recover UFOs in those countries, there could be other military forces waiting for us... :hammer:

 

 

Hey!! :idea:

I got another one!!!

The US are prime candidates for that definition, as are the Europena Ciommunity, Russia and China.... Each of these have the military strength and independance (arrogance?) to try something on their own...

Each of those groups could easily set up their OWN XCOM force!! :o

They'd be divided, in competition, but I can see some great opportunities for MULTIPLAYER!!! :D

(maybe we'd have lower, more realistic radar ranges, to put more bases on the same continent, and the different agencies would bump into each other in neutral countries, perhaps even fight each other :naughty:

But their only chance of winning would be to have a unified front for humanity, be it by eliminating the competition, or by unifying their forces...

anyway, I think it would be great!! :beer:

Edited by Paladin
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Hmmm, not sure...

They might consider that Their country is wrong in letting XCOM down, and that they ARE saving their country better by helping us...

 

Then again, some particularly clueless guys could lead their home ARMY to our bases

Oh, and you don't need a soldier to know, perhaps the Aliens wanted to know teh location of any and all XCOM bases in the territory of the country they signed with, so they'd know exactly where it is :D

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I never said anything about countries being "Evil"!!! :o

 

Besides, the very idea is laughable... :stupid:

 

NO country or culture is fundamentally Evil, that's just an artificial word you'll have to get rid of if you want to see the REAL world...  :naughty:

 

Hey, hey, calm down, keep your horses down, I completely agree with you, that why I quoted it, I said "evil" but I thought of it a stupid clasification, I was merely pointing out to Alex (who made a remark which was obviously deleted by a mod) about a certain country being "evil". That's all, I get plenty of the real world myself, thank you.

Edited by Azrael
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Well, we don't want to be too "copy and paste" here--I believe that all countries should start out somewhat neutral, myself, and only upon uncovering a significant threat later on, will they begin to prioritize X-Corps, and the good/bad guys thing takes root from there.

 

As for the "hunt down the media guy before he makes it to the truck" thing, doesn't that sound a bit too...uh...Timesplitters?

 

edited for atrocious spelling and grammar. I was in a hurry. :naughty:

Edited by The Master Maniac
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I was going to propose that all bases in a country that goes bad will dissapear (EXEPT YOUR HOMEBASE, and if that one is finnished by aliens, your number 2 should be immune), but i like the idea of the aliens automaticly knowing about it better.
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[...] and if that one is finnished by aliens, [...]

Your spelling will get you into trouble, remember my word!

 

Outright disappearance of your base is somewhat drastic IMO, but a more-or-less immediate attack (followed in quick succession by others if not successful :naughty: ) could be plausible; maybe the aliens would also use some local allies during such raids.

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Yea, and sometimes in said attacks, they wouldn't necessarily have to waste themselves or their resources to control them via MC. If these rogue human troops are turncoats, they're already motiviated to act on the alien's behalf.

 

Although, I wonder if using MC on them during combat might do anything to persuade those humans the folly of their ways and offer you an alternate recruiting option :) Might not work on those with higher psi strength, but it might yeild you more soldier fodder types.

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Hey, hey, calm down, keep your horses down, I completely agree with you, that why I quoted it, I said "evil" but I thought of it a stupid clasification, I was merely pointing out to Alex (who made a remark which was obviously deleted by a mod) about a certain country being "evil". That's all, I get plenty of the real world myself, thank you.

My apologies if I was a little bit drastic, I just hate ignorant oversimplification, which you obviously DON'T suffer from if you were replying to another post... I could not know that ^_^

 

Then again, it sparkled a nice debate, which is good as long as we respect each other :beer:

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Guest alex the greater
maby give each country thare own baces from whic thay can lanch thare own interseptors (usa would have the F22 raptor or the JSF, european countrys would have the eurofighter, russa and china would have migs, ect)
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Maybe the interceptor does, but this goes back to something else eluded to on another topic, about possibly being able to reverse engineer and/or "reinvent" some human tech. Its kinda silly that we can only research and use alien tech, but we can't improve our human stuff all that much. I mean, our scientists should be savvy enough to come up with a better Mig variant for instance...We are paying them alot after all :)

 

*cracks whip on pampered elitist scientist corp*

 

"Get to work!" :spank:

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I think it's because the alien tech is so much advanced than ours, that if we developed a new Mig, it would still be under the alien ships, the only solution to catch up with them is to steal and reproduce their technology, I believe.
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I think it's because the alien tech is so much advanced than ours, that if we developed a new Mig, it would still be under the alien ships, the only solution to catch up with them is to steal and reproduce their technology, I believe.

 

Well this I understand, certainly from X-COM's (X-Corp's?) perspective. However, with relation to other nations' science efforts (for instance, how it describes Japan in one of those articles just prior to the formation of X-COM fighting the aliens and not having made any progress), and with relation to that, the political climate (the rogue and/or parrallel orgs to X-COM's acting alone or not yet allied), I think its feasible to assume other countries may take a similar or even more varied scientific path...

 

And then too when I think about in what ways the black market(s) could function, there are all sorts of imaginative things that could result. Hybrids of this or that based on what you liquidate or what they themselves come across independently against the aliens and try to push off on you through that market.

 

Obvious to me is that X-COM's priortiy would have much more to do with alien tech than others. But I'd reckon when they all try to do something about their own progress, they'd all want the same kinds of edge, though perhaps approaching this edge differently.

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Makes sense. I'm just very interested in all kinds of progression, be it story, political climates, opposition you face, inventions (new or simply improved "old stuff" you find on your markets) and possibly pros and cons to selling gear openly thats alien.

 

And consequences too to all of that, good, bad or indifference :)

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I also like the idea that SOME countries might not like XCOM crafts flying over them, as well as UFOs, so they could try to shoot them down... I mean, Both the US and Russia (and China?) have high performance SAMs that can shoot down an aircraft from stratospheric altitudes, or multi-supersonic speeds (like mach 4+), and they had those since the sixties...

They SHOULD be able to shoot down some UFOs on their own, especially considering how better funded the US military is compared to XCOM (in terms of aircraft and radar coverage, for instance...)

 

Any low-flying, low-speed small UFO would be a real piece of cake for any modern military, so perhaps we have an agreement like: "XCOM will try to shoot UFOs down, but if we can't, feel free to do so..." with some countries, but others are more like: "We will shoot on any UFO we see, XCOM or no XCOM...".

Varying degrees of freedom would be cool, imagine a superpower that does not want you to land and take a UFO... ^_^

And if you do' you'll anger them profoundly... :D

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Guest alex the greater

or maby have the option of notafing countrys of ufo activaty

eg. we curintly have bad relations whith the russans so we decide not to tell them that a mead scout is overflying them and plain to shoot it down covertly

unfortunitly a interseptor is easer to pick up than a ufo and thay notice our interseptor but not the ufo

the interseptor is unidentafied so thay asume its the aliens and scramble 3 migs to shoot it down

 

this will be hard to explain to the boss

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Its why I think having more reasons to spend some cash, exponentially more as you get more, for things like bribery, bettering relations, or bartering for the release of one of your pilots for instance if you failed to get to that rescue in time. A huge wad of cash still has that occasional abiltiy to cool tempers, plus I don't see why it couldn't also be applied to information sharing between governments.

 

Perhaps some benefits to improved relations would be flyovers by your craft were allowable, and an even greater increase in those relations would allow them to allow you to send in recovery teams.

 

Another form could be technology sharing, which would allow allied nations to develop their own hybrid technolgies and turn around and offer them on the market. Beware though, if somethings on the black market, rivals should have access to them too to come up with their own nasty things to throw back in your face.

 

Sounds like there could be another mission type in here too being associated with technology sharing. Presumably any government in their right mind wouldn't use open markets, or black markets for that matter to move some goods in the category of "bettering relations". Rather they'd probably use government couriers.

 

These couriers could sometimes be shot down by rivals (aliens, countries or rogue groups within countries). You could have another crash site type X to mark it and whether you recover the lost goods or not (if the failure rate is too high) determines how up and down those relations could be (alien pact signing notwithstanding).

 

The units could look like the Men in Black guys in suits or your secret service guys, and like the pilot rescue idea, they don't have to be like unarmed civilians, give 'em a pistol or two and some ammo to fend off bad guys til you reach them in the battlescape.

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Thanks man. Yea I think if we could lend some sense of urgency to a few more mission types ala Terror sites, it'd add just that wee more bit of atmosphere.

 

Equipment for the "Men in Black" guys and Pilots:

 

I think their "pockets" should just be like, belt area, hands, shoulders & legs, minus backpack. The "standard" weapons I'd stick to would be like the early pistols (regular, laser and maybe later with plasma pistol - this last choice might have to be tweaked during the "if you came upon them stage and they were fighting for their lives". If they die too readily, then add the plasma pistol option to see if it balances things any for a bit longer) and a clip or two extra depending on ammo count (would prefer it to be low so we need to be quick about getting to them). Supplementary equipment like flares or colored smoke grenades could be optional.

 

Just a note though, I don't think that we should be able to equip the Men in Black guys, just the pilots. After all, they're government lackies, not military ones like the pilot :)

 

On control of the units, I think you could gain control of the units only after you've spotted them with one of your scouts on the battlescape. Before that their battling (if aliens or other baddies find them first) is just cosmetic for the most part (think just before line of sight occurs and you see gun fire coming out of the darkness back n' forth and only line of sight gains you control).

 

Additionally, I think with the Men in Black missions to resuce tech they were transferring, I think that objective should just be the tech, and rescuing any Men in Black guys only goes to serve additional point returns. Otherwise they can augment your team if you chose. The tech in this case only need be dropped in your ship.

 

With the pilot, he is the valuable cargo, so using him to help you fight off the bad guys is probably a chancy affair...get him back to your ship quickly :)

 

And if these unit types are vulnerable to MC, just think of the craziness that could ensue :)

Edited by Snakeman
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Guest alex the greater

make line of sight a prequset for mc (you have to look into thare eyes) so MIBs are imune to MC (sunglasses)

 

about the mib invintroy give them a 4 slot belt (insted of the 6 slot belt xcorps solders whare) and 2 space vertacal slots in the arms (insted of the 2 space horazontal slots in a sloders arms) 1 slot in each leag and 4 slots in the chest (under the shirt)

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On further reflection, Maybe the "MIB" missions, if they originate from one of your bases could be escorted by another of your ships. Not necessarily another mission type, just a kind of option whether you decide to send an accompanying craft or not. Doing so may minimize damage to both ships if they get attacked, but maybe too there's room for a slightly more complicated battlescape scenario...

 

Rescue pilot and Mib tech simultaneously. Sometimes the scenario could start where the Mib guys and the pilot found one another and are helping each other out when you find them, or they could be on opposite ends of the map. If there's MC involved and they're close like the first example it can make it extra challenging

 

Could be fun, but as well I wonder if it might get too convoluted with regard to introducing too many mission objectives per battlescape scenario.

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Guest alex the greater

this is how a MIB does an infeltration mission

 

he is transpoted to the site in the back seat of an interseptor and does a HALO* jump of the fighter whith a dufle bag contaning thare gear and balck suit (what you expected them to do the jump whareing a tux)

 

landing in a remote airea thay change into thare back suit and equip thare gear thay than burry the duffel bag whth the flightsuit for x-recovrey to retreve later

 

than thay walk into the city to carry out thare mission normaly civiys and aliens will ignore the MIB thinking he is just some random beurocrat

however a MIB will have a spuspishion bar below the energy hp moral and TUs bar if he is cought: wielding weppons, atacking pepple, or just ackting strange it will rise and the higer the meatter the more likley he will be atacked by cops, aliens, and enamy solders (depending on whare he is infeltrating)

 

i will poast more latter

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MIBs? We would so need melee weapons in that case (silent, possibly less bloody). Fiber wire, knives. Even a pocket knife would work. And that's not very suspicious if you get searched. Suspicion bar? That's unrealistic. You should have to use common sense.
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Guest alex the greater

ok hide the speshion meatter

 

and you forgot silensted weppns

 

espeshaly subsonic gauss weppons

thay have slightly more stopping power than a crossbow and are toatly silent and also no muzzle flash pluss you can just pull the bolt out and use it aggen

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Hmm, before I was imagining the MIB guys as more or less guest stars if you will with limited role (controllable on the battlescape when you make that first line of sight, but only during their tech recovery stuff if shot down, similar to pilots yet not permantantly attached to your base, and only given some basic stats that don't improve). However, if we could flesh out this infiltration role a bit more, maybe they could wind up being one other type of unit we could deploy regularly for counter intelligence or counter infiltration roles.

 

Certainly the possibilities if this was a multiplayer/cooperative type game seem interesting. Player could choose to be alien side, or X-COM side. The MIB guys to me seem like they could be on either side though the only roles I could see them in differ from being just alien or xcom (I'm thinking if they were the only instrument for infiltrations or counter intel work besides handling the heady job of tech sharing).

 

Just going on what's been discussed so far, its interesting to me from the perspective of introducing more varied missions. Seems to me so far that what differentiates what some missions need go by the unit type available. So getting back to the political angle, maybe these suits could find a niche as a more bonefied unit type.

Edited by Snakeman
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